The Unluckiest Great: Patrick Ewing
Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports
Patrick Aloysius Ewing.
HOF, 50 Greatest All Time, 2x Olympic Gold Medalist, 7x ALL NBA, 11x ALL Star, 3x ALL DEFENSE, 24,815 Points (26th All Time), 11,607 Rebounds (25th All Time), 2,894 Blocks (8th All Time). 1st #1 Pick in the Lottery Era. 3x NCAA All American. 1x NCAA Champion and NCAA Tourny POY, 1x NCAA POY, 2x Big East POY, McDonalds All American.
How can I call that UN-Lucky? Well lets begin....
Pre-1981 - Ewing was close to signing with the UNC Tarheels which would have matched him up with Jordan, Worthy, and Perkins, and who knows the legacy that would have been left behind. Why did he choose not to go to UNC? There was a Ku Klux Klan rally at the hotel he was staying at on his recruiting trip. Timing is everything Mr. Ewing.
1981/82 - Freshman @ Georgetown. The Hoya Distroya lead Georgetown to the Championship Game against fellow Freshman sensation Michael James Jordan (+ James Worthy + Sam Perkins). 15 lead changes including a lead change with 1 min to play Sleepy Floyd giving Georgetown a 62-61 lead. With 17 seconds to go, Jordan hit the eventual game winner and the first of many iconic "the Shots". On the ensuing possession, Georgetown's Fred Brown infamously passed the ball to the wrong team (James Worthy), which is the first of "Un-Lucky" Ewing heartbreaks. Ewing had 23 pts on 10 of 15 shots and 3 of 3 FTs, and 11 rebounds.
1984/85 - Senior @ Georgetown. Ewing playing in his 3rd Finals (he won the year before against another future nemesis (Hakeem Olajuwon), played in another iconic NCAA Finals. This time it was against the unheralded Villinova Wildcats. Ewing again had a good game 14 points on 7 of 13 shooting, but ran up against the most improbable finals team performance of all time. Villinova shot a whopping 78.6% (shot 22 of 28) from the field and outshot Georgetown 27-8 in free throws. And just like his Freshman year, he lost another championship by 1 basket. This was also the last Finals that was played without a shotclock.
1985/86. Rookie. #1 pick of the New York Knicks. Not a particularly un-lucky moment, but began a career that spanned the greatest Big Men era in the NBA (unlike today's NBA). Ewing would go on to compete against 9 other HOF Centers, most of which were in their Prime (Jabbar, M. Malone, R. Sampson, R. Parish, H. Olajuwon, D. Robinson, D. Mutombo, S. O'Neal, A. Morning) as well as future greats like Tim Duncan. Not to mention other greats like Bill Lambeir, Rik Smits, Brad Daugherty. Ewing ONLY won 1 ALL NBA 1st Team, but got 2nd team 6x, losing out to either Olajuwon or Robinson each time. Ewing was ONLY a 3x ALL DEF 2nd team, with all 3x losing out to Olajuwon, Robinson or 2x DPOY Mark Eaton. The competition was very stiff at the center position. Just Bad Timing Mr. Ewing. And lets just top off the "bad luck" timing, with the fact that like Barkley, Malone, Stockton, and countless others, Ewing had to play in the Jordan Era.
1993/94. Jordan on Hiatus had the remaining legends yearning for the Ring. It would end up being his old nemesis, Hakeem Olajuwon vs Ewing in the NBA finals. The Knicks played 3 consecutive 7 game series which took its eventual toll on them. They beat the Jordanless Bulls in 7 games, Reggie Miller's Pacers in 7, and eventually lost to Olajuwon's Rockets in 7 in the NBA finals. Ewing averaged 19pt 12 reb and 4blk (vs Olajuwons 27-9-4) and gave NYK a 3-2 lead in the NBA finals. All 7 games in the series were decided by less than 10 points. Ewing would break the record for most blocks in a finals series and most blocks in a finals game. This would be the closest Ewing with get to winning a championship.
1994/95. The last year that Jordan let someone else win a championship also came up short. In the 2nd round, Ewing and the Knicks again had a 7 game showdown with the tough Indiana Pacers. And the series started how Ewings career may be defined...UN-LUCKY. This is the series that Reggie Miller famously "choked" the Knicks with 8pts in the final 9 seconds of game 1. This time Ewing's bad luck was his own doing. Down 2 in game 7, Ewing drives in for a relatively easy finger roll layup. The ball bounces off the back of the rim and out. Indy Wins. Ewing on the negative end of another close loss. The Knicks lost 3 of the 4 games by a combined 6pts.
1995/96. This is the 72 win Bulls and thats that.
1996/97. The Knicks with a 3-1 lead over the Miami Heat, when the infamous brawl broke out, players suspended, and the Knicks lost the next 3. In game 7 Ewing did his best 37 pts 17 reb 4 ast and 2blks, but Hardaway/Mourning and company were too much.
1998/99. The Cinderella Knicks (8th seed) in the strike shortened NBA season, the Knicks defeated the Heat in an elimination game 5 of round 1, swept Atlanta in round 2, beat the Pacers in round 3 though they lost Ewing to injury for the rest of the post season, and eventually lost to the Spurs 4-1.
What would Ewing's legacy be if he won 3 national champions. Maybe won 1-2 titles? We will never know.
